Here's a new, compassionate idea for dealing with illegal immigration.While the debate over immigration rages on the national stage, a key piece of the solution may actually be much more American, reflecting the best of the American spirit.
Proposals have been put forward that call for securing the borders and modernizing the legal immigration process — both good steps — but the biggest point of contention remains over what to do with the millions of illegal immi...

Trump's military parade obsession: Appearances, not strength, matter to our president.The day after President Trump accused Democrats who didn’t clap for him at the State of the Union of treason, The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon, on Trump’s orders, is planning a military parade modeled after the Bastille Day parade Trump witnessed in Paris last summer. If Trump gets his way, the parade will take place on the Fourth of July, in downtown Washington and for no good reaso...

What it will take to fight the opioid epidemic: Sens. Roy Blunt and Shelley Capito.Every day, 115 people die from an opioid overdose. It now surpasses motor vehicle accidents as the number one accidental cause of death in the nation. It is an epidemic that has impacted people of all ages and backgrounds, in communities in our states and across the nation.
Take, for example, the 16-year-old high school cheerleader from Springfield, Missouri, who was prescribed pain medication...

A year later, Trump has made his own 'American carnage'.In his inauguration address one year ago Saturday, President Trump described a bleak America of failing education, rusting factories and free-roaming gangs. The speech was a vast exaggeration, or as former president George W. Bush was overheard calling it, “some weird s--t.” But Trump was adamant, declaring: “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.”
A year into the Trump pre...

Readers on #Oprah2020: Oprah's speech opened my eyes.Letter to the editor:
After hearing Oprah Winfrey speak at the Golden Globes on Sunday, I realized that the only mantra for Democrats — or any forward-thinking political party — should be: We are one. Winfrey’s inclusiveness of men and women in the fight against sexual harassment on all levels was strong and inspiring. This is just one issue facing our country today that has recently exploded. ...

Bitcoin boom makes other bubbles look tame.Throughout history, investment bubbles have emerged around things such as tulips, uranium, real estate, dot-coms and housing debt. But perhaps none is crazier than the recent panic buying of bitcoin.
Even after a late-December swoon, the price of a single bitcoin ended 2017 at nearly $14,000. That’s a fourteenfold increase from where it started the year, this at a time when usage of bitcoin for...

A politically inconvenient guide to Trump's national security strategy speechWho says Donald Trump doesn’t have a foreign policy? He does, but it wasn’t the one he rolled out in a speech Monday on his administration’s national security strategy.
Much of the speech contains language quite consistent with Trumpian values, particularly the focus on America first, homeland security, trade protectionism, America’s sovereignty, and withdrawal from Paris Climate and Trans-Paci...

Readers on Republicans' tax plan: They finally managed to pass a big bill.Congratulations to Republicans. They finally managed to pass a big bill — in the dark of a Friday night with so many amendments that not a single senator understands the full implications of what he voted for.
The GOP's one legislative triumph transfers an enormous amount of wealth to the very rich, gives middle-class taxpayers a small and temporary tax break, increases the national deficit, an...

Germany falters on climate leadershipAfter President Trump irresponsibly vowed in May to pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that other world powers would continue fighting the good fight against global warming.
"We are more determined than ever that this be a success," Merkel later said of the accord, which employs voluntary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to ...

New York unbowed by fresh terror attack.New York is a city of landmarks. For tourists, they serve as markers in an unfamiliar place. The Empire State Building — midtown. One World Trade Center — Lower Manhattan. The George Washington Bridge — uptown.
To natives, these landmarks are more than geographical markers, because they symbolize the place where we work and live. It seemed fitting that Tuesday night found me walking across the ...